


Filling the Void

by mmmdraco



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Empath Stiles, M/M, Post-Season/Series 03B, Перевод на русский | Translation in Russian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-20 08:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1503770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles doesn't even realize at first that what he's feeling isn't what <i>he's</i> feeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Filling the Void

**Author's Note:**

> calilium on tumblr asked for: empath Stiles fic (sterek or stydia)? Like maybe he suddenly starts feeling others' emotions and either hijinks or angst ensues.
> 
> Also available in Russian: [HERE](http://ficbook.net/readfic/1902336)

It's a slow thing, recovering from being Nogitsune. It's full of night terrors and panic attacks and questioning everything and everyone. It gets better, though. Just, slowly.

The first night he sleeps without waking at 2am covered in sweat even though his dad keeps it cold in the house at night, he smiles as he goes about his day. It's easier after a full night's sleep to pretend that things are going to be okay. He doesn't forget, and doesn't dare try to, but he can get through psychology without trying to focus so intently on the words that he forgets the meaning. When his dad gets home that night, Stiles knows in his bones that his dad had a pretty decent day. He's not sure how he knows it, but it's such a positive feeling that he doesn't question it.

It takes almost a week before he realizes that his own emotions are all over the place, but not in some kind of unstable mood way, but more of a matching them to the people around him kind of way. He'd always been kind of an asshole just forging ahead at his own pace and hoping for the best, but maybe it was just him finally growing up or whatever. He doesn't mention it to anyone because no one else has called him out for being weird and all of them like to do that. 

Two weeks in is when he finally sees Derek again. Things have been strange, really, with the pack amid everything changing... changing because of him. Stiles is sure that's why Derek has stayed away, but when Derek walks in the door, Stiles feels himself filled with a warmth so foreign that he thinks for a moment that he's been shot or something else horrible.

Derek doesn't even smile, just walks up to him and nods his head slightly. "Has anything happened while I've been gone?"

"Gone?" Stiles swallows roughly, realizing that Derek not being around does only really happen when Derek is physically not capable of being there. His lone wolf routine is actually pretty awful, now that Stiles thinks about it. "Uh... I don't think so? I slept through the night." And that's enough, really. It's big news after all of the times that he's had some hint of Derek being at his window and watching him as he struggled to fight the demons that still seemed to nest inside of him.

"I went down to visit Cora. To try to get her to come back." His eyebrows knit together and his shoulders tense. "Things are happening that I don't understand. Every time I think maybe I understand this town and the magic flowing through it, things change."

Stiles shivers as he gets a sense of terror that slides down his spine until it can coil in his stomach. "The Nemeton was powerful. Powerful enough that it's not going to just let everything go. You don't have to be terrified, though. There's still enough of us here to fight things off." He stops his own words and stares at Derek because he's not sure how he knows for certain that those feelings aren't just things he's sensing off of Derek, but are instead the actual things that are in his head.

Derek's eyes widen and he reaches out as if to touch Stiles, but pauses with his hand a few inches away. "Stiles, how did you know I was terrified?"

"I didn't?" Stiles shrugs and tries not to stare at Derek's fingers where they're slipping closer and closer to him. "I just... I guess I can kind of just tell what people are feeling now or something. Like, it's really easy to tell if Lydia's PMSing without having to wonder if she's just extra pissed-off about some peon like me." A sense of horror seems to block his throat, keeping him from speaking more.

There aren't any words from Derek for a moment, either. "Touch me and tell me how I'm feeling."

Stiles lets out a little half laugh, smiling as he lets his fingers wave in the air. "Yeah, okay, Derek." He puts one hand down to grip Derek's wrist as he's saying, "And here we are feeling your warm skin and your lack of torn cuticles and-" He cuts himself off as he's suddenly overwhelmed with feelings that are unlike how he's felt them before. "Fear and some good ol' angst and... hope?" He pauses to look right in Derek's eyes, his fingers tightening on the other man's wrist. "Love. Lust. Distress. Wistful." His lip curled. "Dude, wistful?" He let Derek's wrist drop as he stepped back. "I mean, that's all just stupid stuff, right? I mean, angst. You're pretty constantly all _Sturm und Drang_ or whatever so that makes sense, and just..." He breathes in slowly and tries to feel nothing at all.

"Could you feel what any of those feelings were about?" Derek's eyes widen and he grips Stiles' arm, fingers curled around his bicep.

The feeling of Derek touching him seems to make the difference and suddenly Stiles _can_ feel it. "Y-yes." His chest shakes as he inhales and he pushes himself forward to wrap his arms around Derek to feel more of that because there's something about the feeling of love that Derek has that is so powerful he just wants to cling to it, and that heady wisp that it's because of him just makes him feel welcome. There in Derek's embrace, though, he's no longer certain which feelings are his own.

It doesn't matter, really, since it feels nice whether it's his own feelings or not, and that tells him that they both have to feel that way. It doesn't make sense, but he also doesn't care because the warmth he'd felt upon seeing Derek is making sure it's known and is filling all of the spaces that have feel empty since he was lost to the void for a while. "You love me," he adds, making sure Derek isn't going to deny it. "You've loved me for a long time but I've kind of only just realized that I'm kind of in the same situation and... why aren't you scared anymore?"

Holding Stiles tight, Derek hisses in a breath and just holds him. "How could I be?"


End file.
